Building 7

“…the collapse of this building … amazing, incredible… pick your word. For the third time today, it’s reminiscent of those pictures we’ve all seen too much on television before when a building was deliberately destroyed by well-placed dynamite to knock it down.”

Sure, the people with the 9/11 conspiracy theories are a little odd. But not everything they’re saying is entirely crazy.

THE GRAND LAKE Theater in Oakland was filled almost to capacity March 10, just as the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park was the night before and the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco would be the next night, all for a documentary with bad production values and even worse leaps of logic.

This was the local premiere of The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw, a benefit screening for the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, whose activists have been laboring for more than three years to dispel popular belief in the government’s version of the events on that fateful day.

And to fill that void, they offer a wide variety of alternative theories, carefully laid out in the dozens of books and DVDs that local truth-movement leader Carol Brouillet sold from a table in the theater lobby, or in the hundreds of Web sites devoted to debunking the official story.

Brouillet is what most people think of when they use the term “conspiracy theorist.” Ever since she saw the Oliver Stone film JFK — which she describes as her moment of awakening — she has been trafficking in the dark world of a shadow government executing secret plots. She’s been gathering every relevant document she can find, meticulously connecting every dot into an elaborate proof.

[This article first appeared in The Warrior, the official journal of the Trial Lawyers College (www.triallawyerscollege.com) and is reprinted here with permission.]

Within a few hours after the 9/11 attacks, our government named a group of 19 Muslim men as the principal players in the most devastating attack on this country–even more so than Pearl Harbor, as it was mostly civilians who were murdered on 9/11, unlike the mass murder of our sailors by another military power. Further, in addition to approximately 3,000 murders, there could easily be many counts of attempted murder2 charged, as well. Assuming an indictment is issued, there will undoubtedly be dozens of kidnapping charges, some major theft counts, destruction of public and private property, and sundry other charges arising out of the death and destruction of that day’s events. Of course, the principal charge will be the conspiracy to commit these crimes. The 9/11 Commission Report, frequently referred to as the Kean-Zelikow Report3, has concluded that the 19 named Muslims were the operatives of Osama bin Laden, and that they conspired to hijack airliners and commit the atrocities of 9/11.

Editor’s Note:
A brilliant lawyerly sketch of what a factual 9/11 defense might look like, and why no one in power would want to see this day in court.

The official explanation that fires caused the collapse of Building 7 is incredible in light of the fact that fires have never caused a steel frame building to collapse, before or after September 11th.

Steel-frame highrises (buildings of fifteen stories or more) have been widespread for over 100 years. There have been hundreds of incidents involving severe fires in such buildings, and none have led to complete collapse, or even partial collapse of support columns.
The Interstate Bank Building fire consumed several floors but did not damage the steel superstructure.

Burlington– For more than four years, the public has repeatedly been urged to ignore “outrageous” conspiracies theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that set in motion the so-called “war on terrorism.” However, the official explanation that has been provided — and widely embraced — also requires the acceptance of a theory, one involving a massive intelligence failure, 19 Muslim hijackers under the sway of Osama bin Laden, and the inability of the world’s most advanced Air Force to intercept four commercial airplanes.

“A good theory explains most of the relevant facts and is not contradicted,” notes David Ray Griffin, who has been examining the available evidence for the past three years and has so far published two books on the subject. This month, Griffin summarized his findings for more than 1,000 people in four well-attended Vermont talks. The bottom line, he informed a packed house in Burlington on Oct. 12, is that “every aspect of the official story is problematic,” contradicting the available evidence and defying even the laws of physics.

You may well ask, how can this be true? And, if so, why haven’t we heard more about it? The answer to the second question is easy: Mainstream media outlets have consistently declined to examine the highly technical and exhaustively documented case Griffin has developed. That may also sound like a conspiracy theory, but the almost total news blackout of Griffin’s Vermont talks suggests that it’s an unfortunate fact.

Several times during the interview, Professor Jones asked Carlson to run the footage of WTC7’s collapse, which he had supplied to MSNBC prior to the interview. Instead, MSNBC chose to show a picture of the building as it stood prior to the collapse, photos of rescue workers at the WTC site, including emotional footage of removal of a body, and photo of Tower 1 after the collapse.

It seems interesting that MSNBC would choose to allow Dr. Jones to speak, yet refuse to show this important video that would have shocked everyone watching with the visual evidence of what he was saying–the “implosion” of Building 7. Instead, they showed photos already seared into Americans’ minds of what we were told to believe, while allowing Jones to suggest ‘our memory is not accurate,’ so to speak. Subliminal has become an understatement in today’s world of corporate “mainstream” media.

While this may indicate our pressure is getting to them, we must continue to demand that media allow researchers to present the whole of the evidence. It seems more likely to be an indication that this scientific investigation, researched by someone with academic credentials, is potentially problematic enough to the official cover-up that they felt a need to immediately attempt to discredit Jones, before the truth can get traction with the broader public.

Essentially, it’s all about physics and common sense. Cut steel, and buildings fall. Crash a plane, and the Earth gets scarred. Fire a missile; see a hole. What’s up must come down, cause makes effect, and for the truth to set you free, it must be freed itself.

It’s dark in the basement of St. Mark’s Church and dark outside on a mid-December Sunday night, but inside they have seen the light. Among the 100 or so people in the room, many wear buttons that read “9/11 Was An Inside Job.” Others grip the vital texts in their hands — Crossing the Rubicon, The New Pearl Harbor, or 9/11 Synthetic Terror. Most in the largely (but not exclusively) white and male crowd can quote you the important passages from “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” or The 9/11 Commission Report. A few can guide you through the details of concepts like “peak oil” and pyroclastic flow. All of them suspect–and a few simply know–that their government was somehow complicit in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans four Septembers ago.

They are watching the new edition of Loose Change, a slick, witty documentary featuring a hip soundtrack and a rapid-fire assault on nearly every aspect of the “official” story of 9-11. The work of 22-year-old filmmaker Dylan Avery, Loose Change came out last year to take its… Continue reading →

This lecture was delivered March 30, 2006, at Grand Lake Theater in Oakland for Progressive Democrats of the East Bay. Abbreviated versions of it were given in San Francisco for the Democratic World Federalists on April 2 and the Commonwealth Club on April 3.

Although I am a philosopher of religion and theologian, I have spent most of my time during the past three years on 9/11—studying it, writing about it, and speaking about it. In this lecture, I will try to make clear why I believe this issue worthy of so much time and energy. I will do this in terms of the distinction between myth and reality.

I am here using the term “myth” in two senses. In one sense, a myth is an idea that, while widely believed, is false, failing to correspond with reality.

In a deeper sense, which is employed by students of religion, a myth serves as an orienting and mobilizing story for a people, a story that reminds them who they are and why they do what they do. When a story is called as a myth in this sense—which we can call Myth with a capital M—the focus is not on the story’s relation to reality but on its function. This orienting and mobilizing function is possible, moreover, only because Myths with a capital M have religious overtones. Such a Myth is a Sacred Story.

This essay was originally delivered as a lecture at Trinity Episcopal Church of Santa Barbara, Saturday, March 25, 2006.

In this essay, I offer a Christian critique of the American empire in light of 9/11, and of 9/11 in light of the American empire. Such a critique, of course, presupposes a discussion of 9/11 itself, especially the question of who was responsible for the attacks. The official theory is that the attacks were planned and carried out entirely by Arab Muslims. The main alternative theory is that 9/11 was a “false flag” operation, orchestrated by forces within the US government who made it appear to be the work of Arab Muslims. …

I will argue that the attacks of 9/11 were false flag attacks, orchestrated to marshal support for a so-called war on terror against Muslim and Arab states as the next stage in creating a global Pax Americana, an all-inclusive empire. I will conclude this essay with its main question: How should Christians in America respond to the realization that we are living in an empire similar to the Roman empire at the time of Jesus, which put him to death for resistance against it.

Editor’s Note:
The original posting of this article was split between parts 1 and 2: It is now a single article here.

by David Ray Griffin
April 28, 2006
Part I

Note: This essay was originally delivered as a lecture at Trinity Episcopal Church of Santa Barbara,… Continue reading →

Survey Methodology:This is a telephone survey of adults nationwide conducted by Zogby International. The target sample is 1,200 interviews with approximately 81 questions asked. Samples are randomly drawn from telephone cd’s of national listed sample. Zogby International surveys employ sampling strategies in which selection probabilities are proportional to population size within area codes and exchanges. As many as six calls are made to reach a sampled phone number. Cooperation rates are calculated using one of AAPOR’s approved methodologies and are comparable to other professional public-opinion surveys conducted using similar sampling strategies. Weighting by region, party, age, race, religion, and gender is used to adjust for non-response. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Zogby International’s sampling and weighting procedures also have been validated through its political polling: more than 95% of the firm’s polls have come within 1% of actual election-day outcomes.

See COOP4 (p.38) in Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates of Surveys. The American Association for Public Opinion Research, (2000).

(Utica, NY) – Although the Bush administration continues to exploit September 11 to justify domestic spying, unprecedented spending and a permanent state of war, a new Zogby poll reveals that less than half of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story or believes the attacks were adequately investigated.

The poll is the first scientific survey of Americans’ belief in a 9/11 cover up or the need to investigate possible US government complicity, and was commissioned to inform deliberations at the June 2-4 “9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future” conference in Chicago. Poll results indicate 42% believe there has indeed been a cover up (with 10% unsure) and 45% think “Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success” (with 8% unsure). The poll of American residents was conducted from Friday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.9. All inquiries about questions, responses and demographics should be directed to Zogby International.

According to Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, “To those who have followed the mounting evidence for US government involvement in 9/11, these… Continue reading →

– All the lies from the Bush administration is the main reason for all the conspiracy theories , says NRK-veteran Jahn Otto Johansen.

One of the most debated; why did WTC 7 collapse?

– This is not something that just could have happened, there are too many incidents. You can’t even conclude that the administration let it happen, you have to conclude they made it happen , says Michael Berger.

Strange. Suspicious. That’s how spokesman for 9/11 Truth feels about September 11th. And he has a lot of supporters, on both sides of the Atlantic. Here in Norway, Le Monde Diplomatique, wrote about the 9/11 conspiracy theories in their last monthly edition.

9/11 Truth is a voluntary organisation which “seeks answer on behalf of the families left behind and the American people, questions which deserve to be answered”. About 5000 people receive their news letters, and last month, 750 showed up at a conference held in Chicago. Due to limited resources, only the general manager gets paid.

– This is an important cause – a turn over for the USA – so we have to do something , says Berger when questioned why he dedicates so much time without pay.

From their point of view, 9/11 Truth and their supporters are fighting for independence, truth and the American Constitution, against corruption and lies served from both the political elite and private industry.

Others see them as lunatics who can’t handle the facts. They are conspiracy theorists.…

Editor’s Note:
Despite the melodramatic title, this is a fine upbeat piece on Kevin Barrett’s 9/11 truth battle in Wisconsin with excellent action suggestions at the end. Kevin’s resolve, spirit, and increasing mastery of 9/11 soundbyte distillation are both inspiring and instructive for anyone speaking truth to power today.

This week brought disturbing news to the 9/11 Truth community as Dr. Kevin Barrett, co-founder of the Muslim Christian Jewish Alliance for 9/11 Truth (MUJCA) faces more than summertime heat as his livelihood stands in the balance with a possible loss of his fall teaching assignment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Apparently, those in positions of power in the state of Wisconsin don’t care for Barrett’s political views. The instigator of Dr. Kevin Barrett’s inquisition is Rep. Steven Nass, a Republican State Legislator from Whitewater, Wisconsin, who has begun the process of skewering Dr. Barrett, a Muslim, apparently readying him for the stake (which, according to modern day acceptable methods of punishment, is actually more along the lines of taking a number in the Wisconsin State unemployment line). After remarks Barrett made on June 28 on Jessica McBride’s local WTMJ-AM (620) Wisconsin radio talk show, Rep. Nass expressed the desire to see Barrett barred from teaching an introductory course on Islam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison… Continue reading →

Oliver Stone’s films have deeply touched many people’s lives, including my own. His film, JFK, prompted me to research the CIA and catalyzed my activism. I wrote to Stone twice, when we were working on one of the first American 9/11 truth documentaries, and later when I heard that he was making a film about 9/11. I sent him materials, books, documentaries about 9/11, and encouraged him to tell William Rodriguez’s story. Rodriguez worked in the North Tower and rescued many people, miraculously he lived through the experience. He also heard explosions before the first plane crashed, and witnessed the injuries that those explosions caused. I thought that Rodriguez’s story deeply challenged the official narrative of 9/11, and could wake people up to the reality that “9/11 was an Inside Job,” perhaps the biggest “psychological operation” of all times.

Stone’s film, rather than casting light on the “defining event” of the century, retraumatizes the viewer, plunging them into an abyss of pain and suffering, into the dark and oblivious to the who, how, why, what, of the attacks. 9/11 has become the foundation stone used to terrify the American people and the world into supporting a “bogus war on terrorism,” the dismantling of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and has put the world back into the Dark Ages, pre-Magna Carta. The Administration asserts its power to kill, torture, assassinate anyone they label to be a “terrorist” and deem to be a threat to the “National Security State.”

Stone’s film centers on the narrative of two Port Authority police officers, trapped in the rubble, who are found by a Christian, who feels called by God to join the rescue efforts, and who signed up later for duty in Iraq to avenge his country.…

Evan Solomon : Tell me why you felt the need, with Thomas Kean, to write this book “Without Precedent”?

Lee Hamilton : We felt we had an important story to tell, 9/11 was a traumatic event in our history, every adult in America will remember exactly where they were on that day when they heard the news. We felt that the Commission’s work gave a lot of insights into how government works, and particularly how government in the national security area works. We had hundreds of people tell us, or ask us, how the Commission did its work, and so we responded by writing the book and tried to let people know the story, the inside story of the 9/11 Commission.

Solomon : Do you consider the 9/11 Commission to have been a success, and if so, under what ways do you measure that success? How do you call it a success?

Hamilton : The 9/11 Commission was created by statute. We had two responsibilities – first, tell the story of 9/11; I think we’ve done that reasonably well. We worked very hard at it; I don’t know that we’ve told the definitive story of 9/11, but surely anybody in the future who tackles that job will begin with the 9/11 Commission Report. I think we’ve been reasonably successful in telling… Continue reading →

Editor’s Note:
Ever wonder why prominent “official story” apologists always shun 9/11 truth debates?
Here perhaps is the nightmare that they dread. Show host Goyette is not an overt 9/11 skeptic, just a fearless interrogator with a very logical mind. One guesses the battered Mr. Coburn will be picking his interview venues with much more care next time. A podcast of this powerful show is available here or listen below.

Charles Goyette interviews Davin Coburn

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UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

PM – Popular Mechanics: Davin Coburn “researcher, editor, reporter on the original 9/11 article”CG – Charles Goyette, Radio Show Host

Conspiracy theorists insist the U.S. government, not terrorists, staged the devastating attacks

by Jonathan Curiel, Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle

Dylan Avery has a theory that he says casts doubts on Mark Bingham’s actions on Sept. 11, 2001. According to Avery, the San Francisco public relations executive never called his mom on a cell phone from the cabin of Flight 93, and never told her that “some of us here are going to try to do something.” Instead, says Avery, someone using a voice synthesizer — possibly a government official — called Alice Hoglan on the morning that Flight 93 — and Bingham — became part of Sept. 11 lore.

“The cell phone calls were fake — no ifs, ands or buts,” Avery says in “Loose Change,” a film he wrote and directed that’s one of the most-watched movies on the Internet, with 10 million viewers in the past year. “Until the government can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that al Qaeda was behind Sept. 11, the American people have every reason to believe otherwise.”

Avery is one of perhaps millions of Americans who believe the U.S. government — or rogue elements within it — either orchestrated the attacks or tacitly supported them for nefarious reasons.

As the five-year anniversary of the attacks approaches, the clamor of Avery and other conspiracy theorists has gotten stronger — and more widely accepted. According to a poll by Ohio University and Scripps Howard News Service, 36 percent of Americans believe that government officials “either assisted in the 9/ 11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.” Twelve percent of Americans believe a cruise missile fired by the U.S.…

Editor’s Note:
911Truth.org is proud to sponsor a live webcast of Steven Jones’ presentation from the Lifting the Fog conference to be held this Saturday on the campus of UC Berkeley. Jones’ presentation is titled “Analysis of the World Trade Center Destruction.” Details and webcast links follow.

NOTE: The UCB tech folks have pointed out that their webcast system is brand new, and only a beta version. We all very much hope it will work perfectly, but it’s worth some finger-crossing! In the meantime, efforts are also underway to stream the audio of the full day’s events. More info as it becomes available.